


Good Cake

by duointherain



Category: Original Work
Genre: Lemon, M/M, Sci-Fi, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 21:06:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12992526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duointherain/pseuds/duointherain
Summary: It's just a silly fluff story. It's sci-fi, m/m, with a lemon, a bank robbery, and a wedding.





	Good Cake

Good Cake  
by Max  
copyright 2017, all rights reserved

 

Detective Raine ‘Ray’ Mcallister threw his bag on the desk, but with a practiced grace that didn’t dislodge the four coffee cups, piles of paper, or cryptic scattering of pens.

Helio paused, watching from his side of their pushed together desks. They’d been partners for nearly five years and allies in the war. “Something wrong?”

They were the most unlikely of partners. 

Helio Morgan’s desk was smooth black lacquer, free of anything other than his current needs. A Crafted, he only gained full human rights at the end of the war, but Raine always and always had made him feel like a full person. He looked average, of average height, average brown eyes, common milk caramel skin, and impeccable dark hair. His dissembling made him fade into the background. Really paying attention to him washed away all that intentional commonality, leaving him a passionate dark phoenix of a man, with ideas about how the world should be, what he wanted in his life, and how he was going to get there.

Ray’s form of being not noticed was to be so vividly bright that people couldn’t stand to look at him for long. He came across as brash and loud with violet eyes and baby blue hair that hung to his waist. He flopped into his chair. The motion was smooth, grabbing a cup from his desk and flopping his feet down all in one go. He sighed, dramatic and aggrieved. 

“Stupid therapist!” His thumb rubbed over the control dial on his cup and it filled a latte that had more sugar and milk than was probably ideal for short, desk assigned detective. 

Helio took a slow breath, stared at the lanky, baggy clothes covered form of his partner. It was highly inappropriate to consider if Ray had more chest hair now, years after the war. It was not professional to think about licking his healed bullet wound to see how sensitive it was. It was completely and utterly inappropriate, also completely pleasurable. 

“What did she say,” he asked, pitching his tone and rhythm to imply slight wrongdoing on Ray’s part for not disclosing completely. 

Ray blew his cheeks out, firm and round for a moment, and there was the pucker of his mouth, so pink and ... Helio sat up straighter, reached for his own cup which filled with black coffee, no sugar, no cream, because clearly he had had enough indulgence for one day. 

Elbows on the desk, chin in his palms, strong fingers framing his face, he sighed again, huge and dramatic. “She won’t okay me to return to active duty until,” and then his voice faded off, color rising in his cheeks in equal proportion to the sound falling away from his voice.

“That happened to me too,” Carol said, half sitting, half leaning on their desks. She was, objectively, a very beautiful woman. Helio had heard many work inappropriate comments between the men in the office about the curves of her body, the color of her lips, and as the only Crafted in the office, he had wondered why her shape had never incited unprofessional thoughts for him. That had always been someone else.

“What happened to you,” he asked, smiling a professional and appropriate smile. 

“So remember when the Hicks case went to shit and I spent three weeks regrowing my liver and lungs,” she asked, while drinking from her cup, which looked like a can and was filled primarily with an assortment of commercially sanctioned sweet beverages that Helio did not approve of.

“Yes, of course,” he said, giving what was often a very useful answer to that kind of question. As it turned out, sometimes Naturals didn’t remember, though that was a rare outcome in Homicide and Violent Aggression Department.

“Carol,” Ray groaned, “Do you have to, really?”

She looked at him, eyebrows arching, lips tight in disapproval. “Somebody’s got to.”

Ray leaned back, one elbow on the arm of his chair, the other making a pointing gesture at her that was probably meant as some kind of reprimand, but didn’t have much effect. “Dat’s totally not true.”

See now Ray was beautiful, just a little stubble on his cheeks, white skin like some painting from long ago, pink lips, and he was deadly effective in a battle. Having fought alongside him, Helio knew there wasn’t a weapon or a vehicle that Ray couldn’t use effectively. The man could run, jump, punch, with lethal grace, but those capabilities always seemed hidden in his silly, frivolous, cluttered presentation. 

If he wasn’t cleared to return to work within a month, he was going to be forced into medical retirement. It made Helio consider his own motives, his own goals in life. If Ray left law enforcement, he knew he would too. Whatever new job Ray got, Helio knew he’d try to follow. At some point that was going to get really awkward, even if he never admitted to the completely inappropriate thoughts he had about his partner with growing intensity and frequency. Just exactly how did one explain something like that? One can’t really say, ‘Well, I have also accepted a position as a teacher because I think constantly about pushing my tongue into your anus.’ There’s just no good way to say something like that.

“Holy hell, Helio,” Ray said, hands on his desk, leaning over, almost fear enough to be in the airspace of Helio’s desk. “Your mind was seriously wandering, dude! What are you thinking about?”

Helio’s mind turned to sand in an hour glass and just slipped down his spine, even as color rushed up into his cheeks. “Uh.”

“Uh, uh,” Carol said, sipping her unhealthy sweet beverage. “Ima gonna step off now.” She wagged her finger at both of them. “You two should talk.”

“What does she mean,” Helio asked. “We talk all the time. She knows we’re partners.”

“Yeah,” Ray said, drawing the word out. “So!” 

“Why are you embarrassed?” 

“Wull,” Ray said, violet eyes looking anywhere other than Helio’s side of the desk. “It’s kinda, uh, so the shrink says I need to make more enduring connections with at least one person in my life and to uh, accept myself more on an instinctive level. She said I had to find a fuck buddy, but more intense than, so yeah, like, uh.”

Helio straightened his tie, smiled, even though he wasn’t sure what smile one wore at a time like this. “I most heartily and with all good will volunteer to be of service.”

The sentence was long, giving Ray’s face time for growing shock, lips parted, eyes wide. “Yuhhh, uh, oh, well, it’s not exactly that easy,” Ray said, “Not that you’re not like the hottest person ever, cuz you are, but uh.” 

Helio’s eyes narrowed. “You desire me. I desire you. Sexual intercorse will speed your healing and well being. I can book a hotel room for us this afternoon.”

Someone dropped a cup and experienced a choking fit. 

“Look,” Ray said, cheeks bright enough to serve as warning lights. “Helio, my friend, I thought you were ace.”

“I am not asexual,” Helio said, “While many Crafted are designed that way, I long ago had that limiter lifted. I am, however, demisexual, so the change was not immediately evident.”

“Oh,” Ray said, feeling the headache clench up the back of his neck. “Ah ain’t gonna use you like that, man. You my best friend, not a fuck toy. Maybe it’s time for me to just retire. It’ll be okay. Maybe go out to Mars, build some shit or something.” 

“Do you know what demisexual means?” Helio leaned back in his chair, giving what he hoped was a cocky and challenging expression.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ray said, fingers flowing over a connected paper in the chaos of his desk as he tried to covertly look it up. “It’s more complicated than that though, cuz ah, uh,” then he grabbed the paper, opened a connection Helio’s desk, and wrote him a private message, “I’m kinky man, like, like, I think about.. Uh.. stuff.”

Helio’s face lost all pretence at pretending to be proper socialized, but that innocent and open expression was one of the things that Ray loved the most. They both reached for a privacy filter around their desk at the same moment. This kept them from hearing the cat calls of their coworkers, for one thing. It also made their space completely private.

“Look,” Ray said, standing again, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I, uh, look, like don’t think less of me, okay?”

“I would never,” Helio swore in the same innocence and completely open heart.

“So like some people. They just get hard and fuck and everyone’s happy and it’s great.” 

“Sounds good to me, but you want something else?” His head tilted as he considered.

Ray’s breath caught and he wanted so badly to reach across their shared space and touch Helio’s cheek, to tell him how much he loved him, had loved him since the wars. It just wasn’t that easy. 

“Are your genitals intact,” Helio asked, calmly, with a straight face.

Gasping, eyes wide, Ray laid a hand over his heart, mouth making an elongated O shape in abashed horror. “Der ain’t nothin wrong with my dick!”

Innocence can give a purity and potency to pursuit. “Then it should get hard if I run my tongue up it?”

“Whoaah,” Ray gasped. “It’s um, I’m submissive and masochistic,” he continued in a flushed rush, heart worrying that that was the end of it. It wasn’t like just getting off was going to solve his mental problems, his self acceptance and self doubt. If just cumming were the answer, he did that every night before bed. 

The cure prescribed wanted him to be in love with someone who loved him back. To have this connection to another that gave life purpose and would tamp down the nightmares made for a tall order. It wasn’t like he hadn’t fucked doms. There were clubs for that. It was always just, off somehow. The dom had their own idea about what they wanted and how they were going to get from it, and that often didn’t include making sure the mix was just right for the sub. Humans were complex. That’s just how it was. If it was all that easy, therapists would just all be out of business.

“Give me access to your private browsing history,” Helio said, calm and clear about the command. 

Ray’s heart jumped into his throat. His mind raced with fantasy and he imagined Helio’s hand on his back forcing him to lean over the desk, telling him it was for his own good. “There’s some stuff in there,” he said as his stomach roiled, “that’s uh, not appropriate for work.”

“You are more important to me than work. You’ve been that important to me long before I realized how important you were.” His words were slow, deliberate, but part of his thoughts were also caught up in research, sorting through what people who claimed to be submissive and masochistic found sexually stimulating. “Would you like me to rape you,” he asked exploratively. 

“No,” Ray said word short, eyes shifty. It was really too bad that work cups couldn’t produce rum. “Yes, but no. I don’t actually want to be hurt or violated. I want to consent and I want my lover to care about me, but I want to pretend....” 

“You should pick a safeword.” 

“Not right here, in the office,” Ray said, finding new levels of shock to show on his face.

“The privacy screen is beyond corruption,” he said, standing up, pulling his tie loose. “My sexual desire for you has grown steadily over the years that I have known you and this is good for your health.”

“Uh,” Ray said, completely hard under his loose jeans, but it was a new kind of hardness, not just the quick, think dirty thoughts, get it over with hardon, but more like the dial on a compass, pointing right at his best and longest friend, the only person he completely and utterly admired in the world. “Now, now, see, this is like, uh, some deep shit here.”

“It is,” Helio agreed. “Pick a safeword or I shall come to the conclusion that you do not consent to being fucked and given your medicine.”

They’d both been moving and were now midway between the desks, on opposites sides. 

“Okay, so see, like I might be, you know, kinda in love with you,” Ray said, swaying like he was going to lunge the opposite direction, whichever way Helio went, he’d go the other. 

“That is fortuitous,” Helio said, smiling, “I think you should move into my apartment so that I can spank you every night. I think you have a beautiful ass.”

Ray’s ass felt like it was blushing too, but he told himself that was all in his mind. “This is not like you!”

“It’s entirely like me,” Helio said, “I do try to be really professional at work. Pick a safeword.” 

"Oh god," Ray said, heart beating. Helio was strong, fast, the hero of the war, practically a superhero and the idea of being spanked by him was almost enough to make Ray cum in his shorts. "Look, it's, I want to be vanilla. I want to like just normal sex, sweet and gentle." 

How Helio got behind him, he wasn't sure, but the heat and strength of the man leaning against him, made him want to melt. "I have powerful instincts," Helio whispered in his ear, "Hungers." 

Ray fluttered, his breath that tattered lace of desire and hesitation. "You do?"

"I do," Helio said, stepping closer to his desk, but with both hands on the desk to either side of Ray he pulled Ray with him. "Powerful and overwhelming hungers like the very nature of humanity flows within me when I am near you. I want you on my lap, struggling as I pull down your pants, pleading with me not to spank you, and then when my hand hits your pretty ass, I want you to cry out, to plead with me." 

Ray rubbed his hard cock, shifting it under his zipper. "Oh god." 

"I want so many things," Helio said, lips brushing against Ray's ear as he spoke. "I want to adore you. I want to see you smile. I want to hold you safe in my arms. I also love you. Now pick a safeword, or would you like to have dinner first and discuss mutual fantasies before we consummate?"

Ray pressed back against Helio, only in that moment realizing that Helio was actually just a little taller than he was. Both hands reached back to touch Helio's hard muscled thighs, wiggling a little as if he were struggling, brushing his tight ass over Helio's hard cock. "Pumpkin."

"Pumpkin is your safe word?" 

"Yeah," Ray said. 

"Good, don't forget," Helio said, his strong arms guiding Ray's arms back behind him and easily into cuffs. "Because I'm going to rape your virgin ass. No one can hear you, so you can cry all you want." 

With his wrists cuffed behind him, Ray let go of the control he tried to always keep, the fear of loving fear of connecting, and leaned back against Helio. His soft moan turned into a mewl as Helio's strong hand cupped his unprotected crotch, taking hold of his cock, stroking it through his pants. 

"This is mine now," he growled in his ear. "I might mark you. I can have you restrained and your cock exposed to an artist who will tattoo my name on your pretty little cock."

"Please no," Ray whispered, cheeks clenching over Helio's cock. "No, don't let anyone see me!" 

Helio lifted him off his feet and carried him to the smooth clean side of their desk. "I'll show your pretty ass to whoever I want, slave." 

Then his hand was in the center of Ray's back, forcing him to bed over. The desk was smooth and cool against his face. "Have you ever been fucked before, slave?"

"No," Ray whispered. "Please don't hurt me!"

Leaning over him, his body a weight over Ray's, Helio brushed silky blue hair back from his face, tenderly brushed a fingertip over over pale blue eyelashes. "Pain is part of it, my pet. You will have to take it as my cock pushes into that little virgin ass of yours."

Modifying his desk on the fly, Helio pulled a thick soft strap up from his desk and put it across Ray's back, keeping him bent over before reaching around and opening his pants. "Don't be ashamed, slave. You were meant for this. This is what the gods intended for you." 

As his pants were pulled down though, he was ashamed, afraid that somehow he wouldn't be good enough, that he was bent in someway from his past. As his pants fell to the floor, tangling his ankles, he found a new level of submission. It wasn't the artificial and pale kind at the clubs where it was about roles, but it was real now, really being seen by the man he loved in all of his bent imperfection. 

A burn scar arched across hip and as Helio's fingers traced the rough edge of it, he accepted that whatever happened, if Helio ultimately rejected him or if some outcome he had no way to imagine in that moment happened, he was there, in that moment with the man he loved more than life and there honestly. "Yes, Master."

"That's a good boy," Helio said spreading his cheeks. "Your hole looks very small. I think it will hurt you a great deal as I slide into you." 

Ray started wiggling again then, trying to get free when he knew he couldn't. "No no! You'll be too big." 

"You'll get used to it," Helio said, dialing his not work approved cup to olive oil. He dipped his fingers in then traced two of them around Ray's tight little asshole. "Every morning from now on, you will wake beside me with my hard dick up your ass."

"No, please," Ray cried, real tears starting, washing him with relief and heightening his sexual arousal. Those fingers touching his sensitive anus, touching him where love had never touched before, he found himself crying harder as Helio's fingers pushed into him, all the way in, then slowly fucking him. He was relaxed and wanted those fingers more than anything else, so it didn't hurt, but he moaned, moving his hips as if it did hurt. "Please! It burns!" 

"That's my pretty boy," Helio said possessively. "Now tell master you want his dick up your ass or I'll give you your first spanking." 

"Please master," Ray moaned, letting there be conflicted expression, because he very much wanted Helio's dick in his ass, but he wanted to be the frightened virgin too. "Please put your dick up my virgin ass."

The head of Helio's cock replaced the fingers, slowly circling, testing, not pushing in until there was relaxation and Ray was ready, but not backing away either. "Relax, slave," Helio commanded. "Your use and suffering pleases the gods."

"Oh!" Ray gasped as the head pushed into him, easily and smooth. His head came up from the desk, back arching. "Oh god!"

An arm reached around him, holding him as Helio pushed deeper, slowly owning him completely. He petted his hair, caressing him as he took utter possession of him. He pushed into so deeply his balls rubbed against Ray's thighs. "Tell me slave, do you feel how much I own you?"

"Yes, Master," Ray said, still crying, pushing back, wanting Helio to feel welcome, offering himself completely. "Please use me!"

"Thats a good boy," Helio said fingers caressing over Ray's face, tracing tears down to his jaw. "Now I will fuck you and you will lay relaxed, allowing my dick to move in you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master," Ray whispered, relaxing even more, feeling safer than he'd ever felt, ever imagined feeling. "Please Master." 

Warm, wet and unrestrained kisses went up and down Ray's throat, to the back of his neck, making him moan in pleasure as Helio's cock moved slowly in and out of him, slowly going deep, brushing against a pleasure center that had never cum into play for him before. Pleasure soon rose up over the submission and he groaned, panting, trying to move with his love, but held firmly in place as he was used. 

Then Helio's hand encircled his cock and he blushed again. Being touched, stroked in time with Helio's cock in his ass was like nothing he'd ever done before. His very soul lay in Helio's hand, rising and falling not with his breathe, but with the cock sliding in and out of him. 

"I want you to cum," Helio commanded, rubbing his thumb over the super sensitive head of Ray's cock. "Cum under me, spill your creamy seed over my hand slave. I will have you thinking only of my cock when I cum up your ass." 

"Oh god, master," Ray moaned, wanting to hold back, wanting to cum together like equals, but Helio's hand carried him like a storm in a tea cup and he was spilled when his master willed it. 

When he came, he clamped down hard on Helio's cock. The pain in his tight anus only made his release more intense, more unrestrained and he screamed, his slender body vibrating in Helio's strong embrace. 

As he came back to his senses, Helio kissed his ear, his jaw, whispered, "I love you so much." 

"Uh," Ray said, wanting poetry, but having nothing more than the cum still building to make a second spurt out his still hard cock. 

"Good boy," Helio growled, "Now I am going to stand up and you are going to submit to my usage. Tell me you understand."

"I understand, Master." Though he didn't in some way, didn't understand the soft contentment in his being or the spasms of echoing pleasure in his belly, or how good it felt to lay there, relaxed as Helio's hands took hold of his hips, fucking him with slow deliberate thrusts, deep penetration as if he were feeling Helio move through his soul. 

"That's a good boy," Helio commanded. It was another few thrusts before he shuddered holding Ray's hips tight enough to leave bruises as he came in him, marking him in a primitive and vital way. "That's my precious and beautiful one."

“You mean that,” Ray asked, laying relaxed, offering himself as Helio shuddered, sending a little more thick cream into his ass.  
“I don’t say things I don’t mean,” Helio said softly, a hand rubbing up Ray’s back. “Let’s get married.”

“But then we can’t be partners,” Ray said, wiggling in earnest, so that Helio released the strap and the cuffs. “What about the cases we’re working on?”

“What about them,” Helio asked, lifting Ray up so that he was sitting on his desk, pants still down around his ankles. “Let’s also retire and do something where we aren’t getting shot at.”

Ray reached out to touch Helio’s face, the familiar lines and shadows, running a thumb lovingly over his lower lip. “Yeah. If that’s what you want, let’s go. We can tie everything up and hand it off in a couple weeks, then go where you want. More pressingly, was that as hot for you as it was for me? Yer not just.. Ya know... doing it for me?”

“Joining with you in such a way is the most erotic and vivid experience of my life. Loving you, Raine, has brought color into my life. You make me human.” Helio kissed the fingertip brushing over his lips. “I meant what I said about wanting to spank you. It is counterintuitive, but you struggling on the desk fills me both with a powerful predatory instinct, but also a deep compassion and overwhelming love.”

“Yeah,” Ray agreed, letting Helio suck his finger into his mouth. While some part of him didn’t want to leave his job, watching Helio’s lips close over his finger, the feel of warm wet tongue against his skin, and he knew deeper than anything had ever penetrated him, he didn’t want Helio getting shot, didn’t want to ride in a funeral procession for him. “Let’s quit. You leave amazing notes and they’re always up to date. Nothing in our cases that someone else can’t do as well. Let’s just go.”

“Where to,” Helio asked, a hand reaching down to gently, tenderly caress the backs of his fingers over Ray’s now soft cock. 

“Let’s go to L.A., to the beach.” 

There was a buzz on the other side of their dark privacy screen and they both scrambled to get their pants up. Ray was still doing up his button when the screen faded away. The whole office was watched. The scent of fresh popcorn was in the air. Ray brushed his fine blue hair back, lips pursed as Captain Matilde looked him up and down. 

The captain was also a Crafted, of the siren type. She was short, curvy with ink black skin and silver eyes. Over the course of a day white line drawings would grow from her jaw to her temples. If there was anyone that Ray had ever met that was smarter and more ruthless than Helio, it would be Captain Matilde. 

“I am pretty sure that I made it abundantly clear that I would not tolerate sexual activity in my office.” Those silver eyes accused the both of them. 

“Yes, M’am,” Ray said, “Uh, Lt. Morgan was helping me follow through with a suggestion by Dr. Black.”

“Uh uh,” she said, “Do you feel all better now, Lt. Mcallister?”

He thought about it, tongue pushing against the inside of his cheek for a moment. “Yeah, as ah think about it, yeah. I feel great.” 

“Wonderful,” she said, smiling a smile that would ruin a straight man, “so you’ll have the emotional fortitude to process your indefinite suspension in a healthy way.” 

Helio finished tying his tie. Somehow he looked fresh as a daisy. “We wish to tender our resignations. We’re getting married.”

Cheers roared through the office and whatever Captain Matilde had to say about that, they were all soon surrounded by congratulatory slaps on the back. Someone found a contraband bottle of champagne. 

Soon enough the bottle emptied and work ensued. Ray and Helio grabbed their coats, what they didn’t want to leave behind from their desks and left. 

In the elevator, Helio reached out to take Ray’s hand. Just them in the elevator, but Ray tensed for a moment but relaxed, letting Helio slide his fingers through his.

"This might take a little getting used to," Ray said, giving Helio's hand a squeeze, "I like it." He paused, "But it's weird too. I always knew you like, like you thought I was okay, but I didn't realize you loved me. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why didn't you," Helio asked. "I don't think you have anything to be ashamed of. Outside of war, I don't think you have ever hurt anyone. So I don't understand why you'd be ashamed."

"Wull," Ray said, looking everywhere that wasn't Helio. "I'm going to need more therapy before I can explain that. Also, you realize we got no jobs, no income."

"I have money."

"Okay," Ray said too, with a sigh, "I also have money, but a job is more than money." 

Helio opened his car door for Ray, giving him a look. "You can do anything you want. We can take time to figure out it." 

"That just seems wrong somehow," Ray said. Helio's car was completely practical, empty of any fripperies, but luxurious in its own way. 

As soon as Helio was in, he turned his seat to face Ray and reached for his hands. "What do you think you'd do if there hadn't been war?"

"God," Ray said, holding Helio's hands, rubbing his thumb over the backs. "I guess, maybe, I'd be a priest." 

"Do you believe in a god?"

"No, but I guess that's something that got lost in the war. Do you? I mean, are you religious?"

"I am not, but I don't know much about it." 

The little grey car beeped three times before speeding up as it left the garage and into the main artery of traffic. "We could go to seminary? We could both be priests."

Ray drew one of Helio's hands to his lips and kissed him, soaking in the new relationship, the warmth and scent of him. "I don't think that'll work. We could just be lazy for a while, watch all the movies, play all the video games."

"Do you want a big wedding? Or can I just request the license now and we'll go down to the courthouse tomorrow?"

"Damn," Ray squeaked, "You don't waste no time. Tomorrow's fine."

"I think I wasted too much time." Helio watched Ray's lips on the back of his hand and moved gently to get a fingertip to Ray's lips, wanting to slip inside, "Suck on my finger."

The command send a shiver through him, clenched his belly and he opened his lips, stuck his tongue out just a little. Helios finger traced the tip of his tongue, then down the center as Ray closed his lips and sucked. "You like it when I call you my boy," Helio asked.

Tongue caressing the finger in his mouth, lips tight, he nodded. It didn't make sense and he didn't think he'd like it out of the context of their sexual connection, but he liked it there, even if he felt a little ashamed for it. 

"We don't have to understand everything," Helio said, brushing some of Ray's hair back. "You are so beautiful. Looking at you fills me with more light than all the beautiful paintings and artworks in all the museums."

"Wull," Ray said, feeling silly and repetitive and stupid young and in love, "That's a little over the top. I'm short and scared and I annoy the crap out of people." 

"You're perfect for me. I'm bland to look at, but I have seen you look at me as if I were something magnificent." 

"You're not a thing," Ray said, slipping from his chair to kneel in front of Helio's. "You're what humanity aspires to be and can never reach."

"Now that was over the top," Helio teased. 

The car hit the speed line and their windows went opaque. They were cut off from calls or connection to the outside world. Ray snuggled forward, laying his head on Helio's thigh. "I never came that good before and I don't think I can get it up again so fast, but god, I want to do things to you. You're right. We waited too long."

"Timing," Helio reached out to Ray's shoulder, then caught up his hand and guided it to his erection. "I am ready." 

"God damn," Ray said, looking up at him from where he knelt. "Already?"

"I showered quick, but thoroughly while people were drinking champagne." He said grinning triumphantly.

"So you want a blow job in the car?"

"That would be lovely. I have thought about that very thing, riding home alone, my hand on my dick, thinking about your mouth." 

"Really," Ray said, blushing. With nervous fingers, he rubbed against the hardon under Helio's slacks. "Being your love slave could be a full time job!" 

Helio opened his slacks, letting his cock jump free. 

Ray slowly ran his tongue over his lips, wetting them, as he snuggled closer. 

Then the car beeped that there was an incoming communication. Ray rebounded into his seat, put his safety harness on, tried real hard to wipe his mouth dry. 

Helio, who knew that the camera would pick them up from the waist up, accepted the call, leaving his hard and naked cock swaying slightly as he turned to face the call. 

A redhead woman with narrow slits for pupils leaned towards the camera, giving them both the eye. “Why? Why do I have to hear about my best friends in all the world getting married from a tabloid?” She held up her hand, covering the camera with her palm for a moment, while she made some very dramatic sighs, before coming back into view. “There will be a wedding, do you hear me? I know you two fucks. Now that you’ve come to your senses, you’ll be halfway to the courthouse. There will be a wedding.” 

“Hey Tabitha,” Ray said, grinning brightly. “We were going to tell you! What’cha mean tabloid?”

She rolled her eyes. “Mcallister if you’d read a percentage of the time you spend talking, you’d be so much more knowledgeable.” 

He leaned back in his chair, arms across his chest. “It’s not like we’re all news network tycoons, now is it?”

Her tone shifted completely and she smiled brightly. “Congratulations. Let me pay for a wedding, please? You know how few things I have that aren’t work related.”

“How quickly can you put together this wedding?” Ray asked, hoping to maybe find a time related reason to decline, to offer some other something.

“Two days, three tops,” she said, pressing a knuckle just below her nose. “I’ll leave for Earth presently. You’ll need clothes! I’ll put money in an account and get a wedding planner out. One of you has to wear white. Which one of you is going to wear white.”

There was a growing look of doom on Ray’s face so Helio said, “I’ll wear white. My measurements haven’t changed from when you had the tux done for me two years ago. Just order another one from there.”

“I ain’t wearing a wedding gown,” Ray squeaked. “Don’t look at me that way!”

“Not at all,” she said, looking at him from the side of her eye, fingertip tapping her nose. “We need something super splendid for you though!” 

The glared at each other for a moment. Ray’s jaw jutted out, his violet eyes glared. Tabitha smirked, red eyebrows bouncing. 

She fanned him with her hands, fingers spread wide. “Don’t worry! Everything will be so splendid!” She threw a hand in the air, plans glittering in her eyes. “No worries at all, you hear me. Ciao!” 

The connection cut. 

Ray dry washed his hands, looking pale. “Now I have all the worries! She’s going to make it an event! In three days she’ll half the planet at our door! Oh god.” 

“Raine.” 

“You’re okay with this?”

“Celebrating the union of lovers is a powerful part of human culture. I,” he paused, smiling shyly, “I am not opposed to a larger celebration and whatever clothing she arranges for you, you will be the most stunningly beautiful human being that’s ever been.”

“I need a rum and Coke,” Ray sighed, slouching down in the seat. 

The little car jerked very slightly as it left the speed line and hit the elevator in Helio’s building. Windows still opaque, there was just the slightest feeling of g forces as they were lifted into Helio’s apartment. Ray covered his face with both hand, taking deep breaths. 

“We don’t have to go along with her plans. We can get married tomorrow.” 

Ray peeked over his fingers, at the gentle and earnest smile of his lover. His lover. His forever lover. Those thoughts lifted his smile and his spirit. “No. It’s okay. It’s like once in a lifetime, right? Tabitha has really good taste.” 

When the car came to a stop, Helio jumped out and ran around to open Ray’s door. “Let me carry you in? Like this was our wedding day?”

“Okay,” Ray said, one eye squinting. 

Being swept up into Helio’s arms though was sweet and warm. He didn’t feel like he deserved it. Arms around Helio’s neck, face hidden, he feared that he didn’t deserve any of this. Maybe he’d actually been hurt worse than he imagined when he’d gotten shot and this was a world he’d cooked up in a coma or something. “Are you real? This is really happening?”

Warm light and the scent of roses washed over them as he was carried in. “Oh,” he said, “Oh wow.” 

"When did you, when did this happen?" 

The main room was a garden now, with a dozen flourishing rose bushes, a fountain, and comfortable seating. The ceiling was a blue spring sky with gentle fluffy clouds. 

"When I found out you liked roses, a few months ago." 

"Wow." 

"You like it," Helio asked carrying him on through a marble arch into a bathroom with a deep wide marble tub set into the floor. The tub was already filled with bubbles and rose petals. 

"I don't even know what to say," Ray said as he was set on his feet. Both hands moved to frame Helio's face. "But I need you to promise me that you'll never keep anything from me again. That you'll always tell me the truth, even if you think I won't like it."

"I commit to that, but you must too. You have desired me for just as long and didn't say anything."

"That's true. Bathe with me?"

"I will. Get in first though, I want to get something." 

Ray peeled his hoodie off. Suddenly the day felt very long. He hadn't wanted to see the therapist because he knew she wasn't going give him his clearance. He completely had not expected his best friend and partner to be on the same page with his secrets. Thinking back over the day, it seemed long and hardly real. 

So when he sank down into the warm water that was deep enough to go all the way to his chest, he just sank in and let the warmth speak for itself. He closed his eyes, head leaning back, and considered, that just maybe this was happily ever after. He'd quit his job. 

Oh fuck. 

He'd quit his job. 

Truth be told though, getting shot wasn't much fun. It was a job for younger people, people with less psychological baggage, maybe. 

"Here," Helio said, handing him a cup. 

Ray took it, pressed his thumb against it, then dialed rum and Coke. "Thanks, man. God, today has been a trip. You're so hot."

Already stripped to his waist, Helio was lean, the lines of his abdomen deep and sexy in some instinctive and primal way. Ray motioned for him to come closer, then ran wet fingertips around a darker nipple. He unfastened his slacks and let them fall. 

"Crap, I just realized you're not wearing any underwear."

"Is that a problem?"

"No," Ray squeaked, thinking back about all the moments he'd been touching or close to touching and somehow that there hadn't been that second layer of cloth between them made it just so much more indecent, but in a good indecent kind of way. "No problem."

"Good. Get on your hands and knees, please." Helio slipped into the large oval tub that easily had room for both of them. 

"Tub sex! I always wanted to have tub sex!" 

"And we will," Helio agreed, sliding strong hands over Ray's back, down to the curves of his ass. "I have dreamed of having you here, though my dreams were incomplete and pale compared to what they are now." 

"How so," Ray asked, head lifting as one of Helio's fingers slipped into him. "Oh man, that was a surprise."

"I need to make sure you were not harmed in anyway by our activity earlier and I want to watch your face as I play with you." 

"How fair is that?" He moaned though, lifting his ass, water running down to the small of his back, down his thighs. 

"Who said anything about fair? What has fair got to do with anything?" 

Ray didn't see the blindfold coming, but only moaned as the light was cut off. 

"Now, boy," Helio commanded, "I want you to come sit on Master's lap. I need to cum in you again."

"Yes, Master," Ray said, letting those strong hands move him guide him so that he straddled Helio's leg. Those same strong hands pulled him down over the thick cock. He gasped as the head touche him and moaned, wiggling a little, mewling softly as he was pulled down, the cock easily sliding up into his still slick passage. "Master, please!"

"No, this is my right," Helio said, "I will fill you with my seed and your belly will grow."

Ray groaned, knees pressing against Helio's thighs, his entrance clamping shut. "No! Please! I can't." 

Though he leaned closer and whispered, "I kinda want to though. Are you serious? Will you force me?"

Helio's hand slipped between them to encircle Ray's soft cock, stroking him slowly in the warm water. "Yeah, I'd like to have a family. Guys do it all the time now. We can make a medical play room if you like, and I'll strap your legs to stirrups, get you pregnant, do checks ups on you."

"Well, fuck that's hot," Ray said, sitting up right, moving up and down now on Helio's cock. "And we'll raise a happy family. The kids will be safe and loved and they'll never be touched by war. Do you know how to be a kid." 

"I was never a child," Helio admitted. "We'll take parenting classes."

"Lots of them," Ray agreed, moaning as Helio did some trick of cupping his hand over the head of his cock and popping it off. "Oh god! Fuck me!"

Helio shifted them again then, putting Ray back on all fours. "Fight me a little."

"No!" Ray cried, struggling, tightening his anus, legs rubbing at Helio as if he were kicking at him. "Stop!" 

Penetrating him deeply, Helio held onto his hips. then reached for a handful of long blue hair, pulling him back up to him, an arm around his chest, fucking him that way as he gently bit his shoulder. "Mine. You're mine and I will fuck you how I please!" 

"Master," Ray cried, cumming again, "Oh god!" 

Helio came, hard pushing deep holding Ray to him as if he were life itself.

Three days later, everything still felt like a whirlwind. It just wasn’t right that there were that many kinds of cake. What was worse was that three thousand people had RSVP’ed for a wedding with two days of planning. True, it wasn’t his planning, but he wouldn’t have planned it if it had been. It wasn’t like he had parents or a family and neither did Helio. They had some friends, mostly the same friends between them, but where Tabitha got three thousand people who wanted to watch them get married, he didn’t know. The cake wasn’t that good. 

Snuggling down in the blankets, face buried against Helio’s pillow, he debated just not going. The cake would be good if showed up or not. It wasn’t like 3000 strangers were going to miss him. Snuggling, eyes tightly closed, the world was dark and private. He had everything he wanted. Helio would come home. He was accepted for who he was. Life was good. 

He did not need 3000 strangers to tell him that.

Then the curtains hissed as they were thrown open and sunlight from Hell rolled over him, prying into his eyes. “OH god!” 

There was the tiniest possibility that there had been too much rum the night before. 

“Good morning, Darling.” Toby, Tabitha’s twin brother, said with more enthusiasm than any one family, let alone any human being should possess. “Did we have funzies last night?”

Ray pulled Helio’s pillow over his eyes. “Ima kill you so dead yer sister’ll never find the body.” 

Toby purposefully bounced on the edge of the bed. “Now if she thought you could pull that off, she would not have sent me to wake up a hung over groom. Get up. I made breakfast. There’s pain killer.” 

“Ima die!” Ray groaned, wondering if he was actually going to throw up or not. “I’m sick! I can’t do it!”

Toby sighed, walked away, his footsteps happily growing fainter as he moved away. 

Ray gave one great big dramatic sigh, then sat up. Hunched over like an abandoned puppet, long blue hair straggling down by his pale face. Helio’s smile would be worth it. He had to remember how to move.

“See there’s my hero,” Toby said as he set the tray with breakfast and painkiller down. “You’ll have a good time today. You’ll see.”

“Oh god,” he said, sweeping the small blue pills into his mouth. “Why so many people? Why couldn’t just be us?”

“Eat up. No seriously, you need to eat. There’s a lot to do.”

“Oh god,” Ray said, “Oh god. Toby, I’m going to be awful. Everyone has come to see something I don’t understand and I’m just,” he paused to tear apart a piece of egg coated toast. “Nothing.”

“Oh sweetie,” Toby said, sitting down again, more gently this time. He reached out to pat Ray’s knee. “You are not nothing. You are brave and kind. I know you have delivered the death notification to families, that you have cared for them. Don’t sell yourself short. You have brought a lot of good to people.”

“Yeah,” Ray said, not feeling completely convinced, but less down on himself than he had been. “Helio tell you about the time I put a delivery truck into the side of a train?” 

“I did hear about that. Honey, everyone heard about that!” Toby worked not to laugh. “Aren’t you a little excited to see the wedding clothes that Tabby picked for you?”

“Nope,” Ray said. Appetite rising, he devoured the breakfast. “What part of I’m terrified and I’m going to collapse under an attack of anxiety is not clear to you?”

“You’re the bravest man I’ve ever met, marrying the man you have loved for as long as I’ve known you,” Toby crossed his legs, rested his wrist on his knee. “I am temporarily licensed to practice medicine on Earth. Isn’t that splendid? I want you to have a wonderful time today, Raine. You deserve to have a fabulous time.” 

Toby could also make a really good coffee. “Helio really is over the moon, isn’t he?”

“He is very excited,” Toby agreed. 

“Speaking of which, where the hell is he?”

“It’s tradition,” Toby said holding up both hands, “the grooms are not allowed to see each other before the wedding.” 

“Well, that sucks,” Ray said, smirking, thinking about the sex they’d had every morning. Helio was good at keeping his word.

“If you need some dick in your ass,” Toby offered, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Fuck you,” Ray mumbled, sipping his coffee. “Good coffee though. Oh, god, Toby, tell me I’m not going to look like some kind of bleached pink poodle today, please!”

“She does love you, you know,” Toby said, getting up and moving to the wardrobe. With a flourish, he pulled open the doors to reveal a slim black tuxedo. The vest was double vested, with polished onyx buttons. “You and Helio were her first friends. Well, you mostly, but that’s neither here nor there.” He pulled the top hat from the shelf and set crookedly on his head. “You like?”

A weight lifted from him and he nodded, crawling to the end of the bed. “That’s really snazzy. Expensive.”

“Honey, everything’s expensive for a homicide detective. So, up! Up, go shower. The wedding is at two, and it’s already ten.”

“Oh shit,” Ray said, scrambling out of bed. “Is Tabby here?”

“She’s getting Helio. Chop, chop pretty boy.” 

“What does that even mean,” Ray complained, but he wasn’t really paying attention. There was a rose and simple gold ring laying on top of the fluffy white towel. He picked up the folded paper note. “Is it like a wood chopping thing? Like when people burned wood to keep warm?”

“I don’t know,” Toby admitted. “I saw it in a movie and it seemed gritty. Do you want something for anxiety?”

The note was in Helio’s handwriting, a simple ‘I love you’. 

“No,” he said, “I’ll be fine.” Terrified, but fine. After splashing water on his face, he gripped the sides of the sink and stared himself down in the mirror. He squinted and glared at himself, tousled blue hair and violet eyes giving him the talking to he needed. Words were for the weak or at least for people without hangovers.

The shower made it better though or the painkiller was kicking it. It didn’t really matter. The shower smoothly transitioned from water to dryer, leaving his four foot blue hair dry. He didn’t braid it, but only put the same hair tie from the day before around a ponytail. It was black. It matched the tux. That was fine.

Stretching, rolling his shoulders, now he felt ready! 

Quietly, he got the tuxedo, which turned out to be pretty simple. He felt silly for thinking he’d coerced into some kind of crazy get up. He justified himself by remembering some of the outfits that Tabitha and Toby had called formal wear on their colony of origin. Happily he slipped into the black slacks, ignoring the strip of satin down the sides. People in olden times clearly had nothing better to do with their time. 

The headache poked back at him and he pressed his fingers against his scalp. There was nothing to be nervous about. If it didn’t go well, they could always do it again. 

“Don’t stress so much,” Toby said, smiling the forgotten bowtie dangling from his fingers, “You only do this once.”

“What if I need a do over,” Ray asked, violet eyes wide.

“Uh,” Toby said, arching an eyebrow, “no.”

Ray pressed his fingers harder into his scalp as his breakfast considered putting him on a reverse breakfast. “No pressure or anything!”

“You’ll be fine, though you need a tee-shirt under that shirt. All we have to do is get you to the church, have a nice little light brunch, then we’ll take our places. You and Helio will walk to the altar from the sides, then you say yes when asked for your opinion and we’re off to the after party. Easy peasy. You pulled off more complicated maneuvers when you were a little boy.” 

“Yeah?” Ray said, rummaging in Helio’s dresser for a tee-shirt. “But then, worse case I died. Death ain’t nothing. Yer just dead. If I fuck this up, I’m going to make Helio sad. I want everything to be perfect for him.” 

"Just look at me for a moment, Raine."

"Stop using my whole name. That's just creepy," Ray said, jaw tight, on the verge of tears that he didn't understand.

"Ray," Toby said soothingly, moving close enough to do up the buttons on the shirt, to slide the black bowtie around his neck, "If you arrive, you go to the stand next to him, and you say yes that you will spend eternity being his significant other, than that is all he wants. Just ignore the rest. Ignore the people. Just think about him. Do you want me to tell you what he'll be wearing?"

"Yeah," Ray said, blinking tears he didn't want to be crying. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"It's a big deal, getting married. It should be a big deal. You become part of someone else, not just in your own mind, but in the mind of the community you live in. Now, don't make me cry too. Not yet." Toby leaned forward and kissed the tip of Ray's nose. "So. While Helio didn't grow up with any ethnicity as part of his identity, Tabitha put him in East Indian clothes, a sepia colored tunic, with rubies embroidered over his heart. It's fairly simple, but I expect he will be the most handsome man there." 

"Yeah," Ray said, throwing his arms around Toby's neck, holding tightly to him. "Oh god, Toby, how can anyone actually love me?"

There was a moment of slight awkward before Toby patted his back, petted the back of his head. "You are more lovable than you know. I know you will be good for Helio, that you will cherish and adore him."

Ray pulled back, wiped at his face, bit his lip as fresh tears rolled down his cheeks. "He deserves better than me." 

"Shuush," Toby said, taking Ray's hand and drawing him back into the bathroom. "If he wanted someone else, he'd have someone else. You don't realize what a very difficult man he is. Have you tried having a conversation with him? Small talk gets one the most awkward of answers. Now hold still. I'm giving you eye drops to prevent redness." 

"Oh god," Ray said, breath speeding up. "Are my eyes red? Do I look alike a drunk." 

Toby broke into laughter. "You look like you've been crying, idiot. Now rub your eyes then look." Toby turned him to the mirror, expert hands finishing off the bowtie. It took him a tiny moment to grab the hat. Ray didn't even argue when Toby pulled the hair tie out and fanned his hair around his shoulders. 

"I look okay," Ray decided. 

Toby groaned rubbing at his own eyes. "The two of you are a matched set. Difficult men." 

Grinning now, Ray turned to face him. "You think so?"

"Oh definitely. Very difficult!" 

Ray pulled the hat a little to the side, grinned a crooked grin to match. "Okay! I can do this thing! I just walk to meet him, say yes, and then we're home free."

"That's it!"

So an hour later they were stuck in traffic, the cab giving them periodic and calmly worded messages that their cab was being held due to traffic ahead. 

"Why is there traffic? There's never traffic. Maybe there was an attack on the central AI." 

"It's Sunday morning," Toby said, buffing his nail, and periodically trying to catch Ray's hand to buff his nails too. "There's a major sporting event. When was the last time you went into the city on a game day?'

"Never," Ray said, grimacing about all the people. A wedding party of 3000 was more than enough people for me, the 125,000 that the stadium would hold was super more than enough. 

"We'll be there. We've got three hours." 

Nervous, but just fidgety, not emotional, Ray started to braid his hair. 

"It looks better loose," Toby said. 

"Yeah? That's nice."

Sirens roared past them. Focused, Ray pulled out his phone and tried to log into the police database, only to find that he really didn't have access. That was like having a bandaid pulled off along with some of the skin. 

What were they going to do? Service was what he'd always done, how he'd justified himself. 

"We're going to be late."

"No. We're not. Read a novel or something peaceful. Play a game. Just think peaceful thoughts."

"Great. Good advice, Tinkerbell. Override code 762816, open the door." 

"Of course, officer," the cab said sweetly, opening the door. 

"No! No! Ray! Where are you going?"

"I can get there faster on foot," Ray said, jumping down to the old asphalt road left over from the old city. "I'll meet you there."

"Don't wreck your clothes!" Toby screamed after him.

Running felt so much better though, so much safer and freer. Earth gravity had taken a while to get used to when he'd first come to the planet, but now it felt right and normal like nothing else ever would. It was deep in what a human being was. 

A display on the back of his hand gave him directions and he ran, letting all his energy into it, all the reservations, all the fear. He focused on getting to Helio with all his instinct and drive. Asphalt shifted to sidewalk, to bricks on a bridge. 

The city was beautiful, glittering in the morning light. At the apex of a bridge, he paused, catching his breath. The river below the bridge was blue and gently moving, filled with awe, he turned and looked at the clouds, the blue sky so vast and splendid. Earth was beautiful. 

That's what he was going to do,now that he didn't have criminals to chase. He'd learn about this planet, the planet his ancestors had come from, where they'd come to being. 

 

The routing on the back of his hand updated and he squinted at it, then he full out grimaced. "Reroute, arrive by 12:30." 

"No possible routes," the system wrote on his hand. 

"What is going on downtown?"

A news story about a fire at a bank came up and a large police cordon that prevented people from getting near all that unsecured gold and valuables. 

But he was so close! Like five blocks more and he'd be there. 

He pulled out his phone. There weren't any missed calls and he had no signal, only data. So he sent a message. "On my way. Wait for me." 

Which the system immediately notified him was not sent. Limited data availability. 

None of that made sense. That wasn't police procedure, that wasn't civil procedure. 

Someone was trying to rob that bank. 

He turned back to the river, stared at his reflection, white vest, black jacket, bowtie, and not bad looking guy. Which was more important a bank robbery or a wedding? His wedding. Helio's smile. Helio was more important. 

Lip between his teeth, he turned to stare at the city. It wasn't that far. If he was right and it was a robbery, he just needed to not be seen by someone who would shoot him. Being shot on his wedding day would be worse than any of the other times combined. 

So then he was running again, down the far side of the bridge, straight through the plaza ahead of him. A pistol should have been part of wedding attire! What if you had to stop someone from stealing your groom or foil a bank robbery? 

Shit.

Then the realization had him.

He was getting married to the most wonderful man in the world and there would be witnesses and he had never been this happy, didn't even have a word for what this happy felt like!

Three quarters across the plaza a bullet pinged and he just ran faster. Something's you can't go back from, can't be taken back and still be who you are. 

He couldn't outrun the car that gave him chase though, an old fashioned, completely illegal human driven car. Ducking behind a pillar, heart racing, old war strategies quickly adapted. The car, small, not armored came back around, slowing when it came around the corner and he ran right at it. 

The driver, a teen girl stamped on the break then attempted to back up as he ran towards her. Her eyes were huge, shocked by the turn of events and she backed right into a solid wall. Ray jerked the door open, reached in and grabbed the firearm from her equally shocked passenger. "OUT! Get out of the car! Now! Move!" 

"You're not a cop," she shouted back.

"Not today, I'm not," he growled, grabbing the front of her shirt and jerking her free. "Consider this your lucky day. It took me like two minutes to figure something was going down. Your plan is shit. You should run like hell."

"You can't take our car," the boy growled as Ray threw the firearm in the backseat.

"Get out. I got someplace to be," Ray said, opening the door and giving the boy a hard shove. "Crime does not pay. Do something better with your fucking lives while you have them!" 

There was no key, just hot wired, so he rubbed the wires together and was off. 

At first it was hard to keep it going in a straight line. terrestrial vehicles were just different than craft designed for no atmosphere. Also, he didn't think the vehicle was tuned optimally. He was going to have to fix that.

And so it was that Ray Mcallister showed up to his own wedding in a stolen Ford Fiesta that wasn’t even street legal. Stairs led up to the church, a bigger church than he'd ever bothered with and the blue sky was clear and smooth beyond it's spires. 

He made the sign of the cross over himself, as he hadn't done in a decade. "God, forgive me of my sins. I'll try to be a good man. I promise."

Half way up the stairs he slipped, scraping his knee, fraying his pants. So he walked the rest of the way, anxiety and nerves spiking right up to the sky. 

The cool shadow of the vestibule fell over him, with soothing grace and he made the sign of the cross again. He promised God he'd buy a rosary that afternoon. Forcing his breath to slow, he walked forward, through the huge open doors into the sanctuary. The pews were filled and the space lit more with what seemed like candle light. 

It was a sacred space. 

At the end of the main aisle stood the podium and a priest. Helio, in the silk and ruby outfit stood to the right, strong and proud, his dark hair intentionally a little wilder than normal. He was so beautiful. 

Ray realized he'd been standing still, breath held. All eyes were on him and he stood a little straighter. His knee flinched as he strode forward, but he refused to notice. 

In his mind he repeated like a mantra, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.

Almost before he knew it, he was there and Helio's warm loving hand took his. 

"Kneel, my sons," the priest said. 

After they'd both knelt, the priest anointed their foreheads with sweet smelling oil. "Marriage is a sacred sacrament, a gift from God. It's path, the path of union and celebration of God in another, is not a path to be taken without consideration. Helio Morgan, have you duly considered the gravity and depth of the commitment to which you present yourself?"

"I have," Helio said, his voice sweet and calm, the power of the deep ocean pulling emotion through him.

"Raine Mcallister, Have you duly considered the gravity and depth of the commitment to which you present yourself?"

"I have," Ray said, new tears blurring his vision. 

"Helio, do you this day and for everyday following until the universe ceases to be, commit yourself to the soul next to you?"

"I do," Helio said emphatically.

"Raine, do you this day and for everyday following until the universe ceases to be, commit yourself to the soul next to you?"

"I do," Ray said, his voice wavering, tossed with powerful emotion.

"Two souls are made one," the priest said, wrapping a blue silk cord around their wrists, binding them together. "Amen."

They nearly fell together, kissing deeply. Helio's hand went into his Ray's hair, holding him possessively. 

The guests' cheering roared in the enclosed space. 

Then there was cake. It was good cake.


End file.
